DU TO START VOIP FROM UAE

A service which allows users to make cheap international calls through the Internet will soon be launched by du, the company’s commercial director said.

The service will serve as an alternative to Skype, which is banned in the UAE, and will be the first locally developed voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service.

It comes after the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) relaxed several important restrictions on VoIP in March, allowing the country’s two telecom companies Etisalat and du to begin providing the popular service.

Farid Faraidooni, chief commercial director for du, said full details of the new service will begin to emerge
 in the next two months.

“As soon as the TRA altered its policy on VoIP, we began developing this kind of service,” he told Khaleej Times.

“It will not be free, but then not even Skype is free,” he added. “But it will definitely be cheaper to use VoIP for international calls.

“We will be offering different tariffs based on the subscription of the customer.”Faraidooni declined to say whether or not the service would be available to smart-phone users.

The comments by Faraidooni reflect the first effort by local firms to capitalise on the popularity of VoIP programmes, particularly Skype.

Expatriates looking to make cheap calls to home have traditionally used Skype, which is officially banned yet still remains popular.

While traditional mobile phones charge around Dh1.60 a minute for a peak-hour call to India, Skype offers calls at a fraction of that rate.

Skype CEO Josh Silverman told reporters at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit in March that the UAE’s ban on the VoIP programme was “short-sighted”.

“We think it is in the interest of the residents of the UAE and the Emirati government and economy to allow Skype as almost every other country on earth does,” he said.

Two weeks later after Silverman’s comments, the TRA relaxed its policy on VoIP but reiterated that only UAE firms — including newcomers Yahsat and Thuraya — could provide 
the service.

So far, du is the only local firm to announce it will provide an independent VoIP service.

A spokesman for Etisalat said that there was no update to the company’s policy on VoIP.

UAE's Etisalat in talks with Reliance Communication

Abu Dhabi's Etisalat confirmed it is looking to buy a stake in an Indian mobile operator, after a report that it was in talks with cash-hungry Reliance Communications for a $3.8 billion deal.
Buying a stake in India's second-biggest mobile operator would give Emirates Telecommunications Corp or Etisalat, a vital presence in the world's fastest-growing mobile market, where it owns a stake in a start-up telecoms firm.

For Reliance Comm, controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani, this would bring in much-needed funds, especially as the company is caught in a margin-destroying price war and is paying billions of dollars for next-generation licences.

Reliance Comm, one of the worst performing shares in Mumbai's 30-share index so far this year, closed 11 percent higher on Wednesday, while Etisalat stock was down 0.5 percent.

K.K. Mital, head of portfolio management services at Globe Capital in New Delhi said: "Not only Reliance Communications but some other players will also be looking at selling some stake to raise funds to cut debt." "Players like Etisalat are looking at long-term opportunities of the Indian telecoms market despite the short-term pain due to competitive pressure," he said.

India has more than 600 million subscribers and nine of the fifteen operators already have foreign partners. Reliance Comm is the only big telecom firm not to have a direct foreign stake. Call rates have slumped to as low as 0.4 U.S. cents per minute in the world's largest market after China.

Etisalat's Chairman told Reuters his firm could decide within weeks about a deal in India. Reliance Comm said it has been receiving proposals from time to time from international telecom companies expressing interest in acquiring a strategic equity stake in it.

The Times of India newspaper said the Gulf region's biggest provider of telecoms services was in advanced talks to buy a quarter of Reliance Comm for 180 billion rupees ($3.8 billion). The market is currently valuing the Indian company at about $7 billion. The stake sale could mean a change in strategy for ambitious Ambani, who made several smaller acquisitions to expand his firm overseas, and in 2008 set his sight for a tie up with South Africa's MTN in an ultimately thwarted deal.

Last month, Anil Ambani ended an agreement not to compete in businesses with his long-estranged brother Mukesh, which also frees him to bring outside investors into his firm. A person close to Reliance Comm, who declined to be identified, said the report was speculative.